Family history on several points, including familial history of language delays, presence of psychological disorders associated with language delays such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in family history is compared to the absence or development of language delays in children. The research results of this work is that there was little if any connection between the existence of such disorders or risk factors, in the family history and the development of language delays. Many incidence of language delay in children were therefore anomalous to the family and must be more carefully looked for and offered solutions for by the speech pathologist. This work stresses the importance of differentiating subtypes of early language problems to facilitate greater intervention results.

Redmond, S.M. (May 2002) the Use of Rating Scales With Children Who have Language Impairments American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology Vol.11 124-138.

Redmond contends that much of the research associated with language impairments suggest the co-occurrence of socio-emotional disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Redmond furthers that the connection may be that children with language limitations may be falsely diagnosed with socio-emotional disorders as a result of the difficulty they face with regard to communicating effectively with peers, family and educators. Redmond examined five commonly used behavioral rating scales for language bias. The review indicated that children with language impairment are over identified as having socio-emotional disorders. Redmond suggestion is that speech pathologists need to be present during socio-emotional diagnostic evaluations to eliminate the possible language element bias. The researcher also adds specific guidelines for evaluating children with language impairment for socio-emotional disorders.

Reichenberg, et al. conducted a very large study of pre-morbid functioning of young individuals before and after the diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and nonpsychotic bipolar disorder, comparing the results of preliminary functioning with those of otherwise healthy young people who come from similar backgrounds (i.e. same high school) the comparison indicated that both groups had suggestive pre-morbid functioning problems in school and at home, but that there was a much lesser connection between school functioning, i.e. language delays and social functioning among patients with non-psychotic bipolar disorder than among those with schizophrenic disorders. The Israeli Draft Board Registry was used as the preliminary assessment, as it contains information on language, intellectual and behavioral functioning. When young people where later hospitalized for Schizophrenia or non-psychotic Bipolar Disorder, their draft registry was analyzed for functioning assessments and lastly these findings were compared to a control group who were known to be otherwise healthy and had not presented fro treatment. "Relative to the comparison subjects, subjects with schizophrenia showed significant premorbid deficits on all intellectual and behavioral measures and on measures of reading and reading comprehension. Subjects with schizophrenia performed significantly worse on these measures than those with a nonpsychotic bipolar disorder, who did not differ significantly from the comparison subjects on any measure. Subjects with schizoaffective disorder performed significantly worse than the comparison subjects only on the measure of nonverbal abstract reasoning and visual-spatial problem solving and performed significantly worse than subjects with nonpsychotic bipolar disorder on three of the four intellectual measures and on the reading and reading comprehension tests."

This rese4arch work utilized maternal recall as a tool to determine the significance of social functioning impairment, including school success or failure to determine the similarities and/or differences between those with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The article found that those with schizophrenia were much more likely to demonstrate serious premorbid social and school functioning impairments, including language delays as well as reading and writing delays than those with bipolar disorder. Though bipolar disorder patients did show some impairment in social functioning it was much less likely to be associated with school adjustment and academics, than the comparison of the schizophrenic population. In addition, one very interesting aspect of this research article is that it made a demonstrative connection between schizophrenia diagnosis, low birth weight and poor social and academic functioning as children and adolescents. Lastly, those with bipolar disorder were more likely to exhibit impairments in adolescence while the schizophrenic group was more likely to express impairments universally through school years and preschool years. The research suggests that poor premorbid functioning could be "manifestation of vulnerability to adult psychotic disorders, and this includes language impairment in both groups with a more severe impairment in schizophrenics. This could be in part to the onset of impairment as bipolar disorder patients may begin to show impairment after much of the language acquisition procedures have taken place (i.e. adolescents)

The MacArthurs examined thought disorders and communication problems in association with individual child and family assessments for such disorders. The findings are similar to other findings in that childhood thought disorders and communication problems were greater in children with schizophrenia than in those with major depressive disorders and there were only a few limited differences between parent communication and thought disturbances between the two subgroups. One marked difference between the two groups in parent functioning was that in the schizophrenic family parents were more likely to parents of children with schizophrenia spectrum disorders showed higher rates of communication deviance (CD) on the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)-CD index than parents of depressed children, the two groups of parents were similar in the communication patterns and levels of thought disorder they exhibited during the interaction task."

Gee, L. Pearce, E. Jackson, M. (2003) Quality of Life in Schizophrenia: A Grounded Theory Approach. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Retrieved September 10, 2007 at http://www.hqlo.com/content/1/1/31

Gee and Jackson's research is based upon the idea that traditional methods for assessment do not necessarily answer all the questions that such patients deem important and they are therefore not assessed within the scope of their own needs, as they apply to quality of life. "Ten HRQoL domains were identified as being important: (1) barriers placed on relationships; (2) reduced control of behaviours and actions; (3) loss of opportunity to fulfil occupational roles; (4) financial constraints on activities and plans; (5) subjective experience of psychotic symptoms; (6) side effects and attitudes to medication; (7) psychological responses to living with schizophrenia; (8) labelling and attitudes from others; (9) concerns for the future and (10) positive outcomes from experiences." The article also discusses the issue of language differences in the manner in which language difficulties affect functioning in social relationships, especially with regard to affect differences in thought and word.

Craddock, O'Donovan and Owen contend that there has been an increasing research base to support the idea that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia on a genetic level have overlapping gene characteristics, which could account for similarities in language and other functioning patterns between the two disorder groups. "The emerging evidence suggests the possibility of relatively specific relationships between genotype and psychopathology. For example, DISC1 and NRG1 may confer susceptibility to a form of illness with mixed features of schizophrenia and mania. The elucidation of genotype-phenotype relationships is at an early stage, but current findings highlight the need to consider alternative approaches to classification and conceptualization for psychiatric research rather than continuing to rely heavily on the traditional Kraepelinian dichotomy. As psychosis susceptibility genes are identified and characterized over the next few years, this will have a major impact on our understanding of disease pathophysiology and will lead to changes in classification and the clinical practice of psychiatry."

Harrison contends that there is a growing body of data, though as yet inconclusive, with regard to control and repeatability that shows some differences in brain MRI between patients with and without mood disorders. Interestingly the areas of the brain that are shown to be affected in those with mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder are areas of the brain which control language function, not in its source but in its ability to be transmitted by the patient. This could indicate some correlation, in behavioral indices where patients with bipolar disorder report a sense that they cannot think straight or communicate their thoughts effectively. "The neuropathology is postulated to contribute to the pathophysiology and…
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¶ … Populations span from the egregiously poor-functioning substance abuser to a graduate student who is merely struggling with stress and financial related problems. The need outruns the resources, and,…